Nantz said he was hoping to cross paths with Mike Holder, the Oklahoma State athletic director and former Cowboy golf coach, during the PGA Championship.

Holder's OSU golf teams captured eight national championships.

Nantz was familiar with Holder's teams because he played golf at the University of Houston.

"I have so much respect for him," Nantz said of Holder. "I still think of him as a golf coach who has mentored all of these guys I've covered all these years."

Rough stuff: U.S. Open course setups are usually more unkind than course setups at PGA Championships.

But Retief Goosen, who won the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, said the rough is thicker at Southern Hills this year than it was in '01.

"You can have a go at the green, some shots out of rough," he said. "But today a few times in the rough, I couldn't get it on the green. I think the scoring is going to be a little bit higher than it was in 2001."

Goosen won his Southern Hills major in a playoff. His score at the end of regulation was 4-under par. Asked what score it will take to win the PGA, Goosen said, "I think you're going to look at somewhere around par again. . . . 2-, 3-under maybe. But I think the course is playing a little bit harder than it did in '01, especially the rough."

Different perspective: Former University of Tulsa golfer Brett Myers was looking for an opportunity to lend his knowledge and expertise of Southern Hills to someone who might need it this week.

Myers, who helped lead TU to NCAA Championship appearances two of the last three years, wrote letters to the top 10 finishers at the club pro championship asking if they needed a caddie for the PGA Championship. He even placed a call to one of them, University of Illinois men's golf coach Mike Small.

Small hired Myers. But Myers said he hasn't had to offer much advice to Small, who is making his seventh PGA Championship appearance.

"He knows what he's doing. He's used to the big crowds and is comfortable in that aspect," Myers said.

Already a champ: Small will come to Southern Hills as a champion. He won the Illinois Open on Wednesday and was scheduled to catch a flight back to Tulsa for the PGA Championship. He has the last tee time in Thursday's opening round, 2:45 p.m. starting on the 10th hole.

Sponsor on ice: Tiger Woods has Nike. Phil Mickelson has Callaway. Bob Gaus has the St. Louis Blues. Gaus, a club professional qualifier from St. Louis, is outfitted this week with gear from the National Hockey League organization. He has golf shirts and caps with the Blues logo, and the logo is also on his golf bag. Gaus, a former hockey player, is a big-time Blues fan. Gaus' friend, Rick Luebbert, knew Blues executives who helped broker the sponsorship arrangement for this week.

"We needed somebody on the bag and they're willing to do whatever to get their name out there," Gaus said.

Anonymous critic: Last week, an anonymous PGA Tour pro told Sports Illustrated that Southern Hills was "great in its day -- the 1970s -- but doesn't hold up to today's power game."

Responded Edmond resident Scott Verplank: "I guess that guy was on some sort of steroids or something. Boy, I'll tell you what. I was playing (Tuesday) with Phil (Mickelson) and Davis (Love) and Justin (Leonard). And we were on the front nine and we all kind of looked at each other and said you'd have to search pretty far and wide to find a better golf course than this, with the conditions, with the way it's set up. Obviously, (it) could be a little cooler on the weather. But just the layout of the golf course, the condition it's in, I'd say right now it's second to none.

Welcome back: Senior PGA champion Denis Watson is the only player in the PGA Championship field who competed in the 1982 PGA Championship at Southern Hills. Watson noticed considerable changes since his last last trip around the course 25 years ago.

"It's long," Watson said. "They added some yardage to a couple of holes."

Watson described the greens as perfect.

"But I remember them being like that when I was here in '82. They were extremely fast," he said. "You have to really work at keeping the ball underneath the hole. It looks like the same thing still."

Chip shots: U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger named two ex-Southern Hills majors champs, Ray Floyd and Dave Stockton, as assistants for the 2008 Ryder Cup team. Olin Browne also was named as an assistant. . . . The PGA Championship total purse is $7 million. The champ gets a $1.2 million cut. The runner-up gets $756,000. Every player who turns in a 36-hole score is guaranteed at least $2,500.

Conspicuously absent: Has anyone spotted John Daly on the course this week at Southern Hills? He registered late Tuesday for the tournament, but it's unclear if he's ever been on the course for practice.

There's no official documentation of practice rounds. Players come and go at their convenience. It's possible Daly has been on the course, but it's usually common knowledge in the media center when a well-known fan favorite is playing a practice round. It appears as though Daly's first shot on the 18-hole layout will be when he tees off at 8:50 a.m. Thursday.